I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Apr 2021
Interview
Friendly and well structured.
3 people in the loop; 1 senior PM, 1 PM and a director of the program.
Questions were mostly behavioral questions and few based on my background/skill.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you describe "conflict management" and how do you handle situation.
Recruiter phone interview, hiring manager phone, skip-level manager phone, then a day of on-site loop with six 1:1 interviews with team members and members of teams that I would be working with.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would your manager describe you? How do your values align to Microsoft's? The interviews ranged from more traditional question-answer to conversation.
The overall interview process was devastating. I was depressed during and after the interview process. I am still recovering. I would never ever want to go through such a depressing stage again in my life, no matter what culture/CTC they offer.
I was interviewed with Microsoft for two positions/teams separately.
The recruiters were not transparent in the process and did not describe the interview process or the role. They are under the impression that because Microsoft is a big brand, they can get away by providing minimum information because anyways candidates will still come and give interviews whenever asked. Interviews were cancelled/rescheduled more than 10 times. The process is very slow and takes months. Until you give a call to the recruiter they do not care to schedule your next round, even if you have cleared the previous round.
Interviewers need to understand that a candidate's whole day is wasted if you cancel the interview at the end time.
Interviewers ask detailed technical questions for the role of a product manager ex drawing the whole exact architecture, data models etc and reject the candidates even if they are excellent in the product management role. The interviewers were not sympathetic. They didn't even want to listen to your work. They judge you based on technical knowledge for non-technical roles. It is like judging a fish based on its ability to climb a tree.
PS: I am happy in my current small company. At least they respect me, my work and understand the basics like coding is for developers and not for PMs. If you are very strict on these things, please inform the candidates beforehand, so that their morale is not destroyed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Irrelevant questions like draw data models and draw detailed architecture.